“Choose Life in Order that You May Live”
- Deuteronomy 30:19 -
In Deuteronomy 28, Moses proclaimed to Israel all of Yahveh’s blessings for obedience. Blessings are steep and curses are steep, that is why the Almighty says to us, “I call heaven and earth to witness against you today, that I have set before you life and death, the blessing and the curse. So choose life in order that you may live, you and your descendants” (Deuteronomy 30:19). He, in essence, warned them saying, “Here are My statues, the very words from My throne room engraved on tablets. They are now to be set up as stones as a memorial in the Promised Land that you will not forget and go your own way, and in doing so My blessings will depart and My curses will descend upon you and destroy all but a remnant of you.” “Then you shall be left few in number, whereas you were as numerous as the stars of heaven” (Deuteronomy 28:62).
These are His beloved firstborn children. He is faithful and sovereign. He speaks blessings. He speaks curses. He speaks life and He speaks death. He tells us to choose which we want—and we will receive according to our ways. We have Israel’s history to examine. She turned her back on Yahveh’s Commandments and she turned her back on the high call as priests and witnesses who proclaim to the world that, “Yahveh, He is the true God.”
Israel profaned His name throughout the nations and the people were dispersed because they mixed with the pagans instead of upholding Torah (the first five books of the Bible) and its righteous Commandments. Israel became worse than the nations and their idolatry. They had been given the truth firsthand from the Truth-Giver Himself and they forsook it. They forsook Him and they incurred His promised curses.
As we read in Romans 2, don’t judge Israel. The same judgment may come to you if you don’t uphold His righteous Commandments. Our command is to love and bless His people and to take heed and warning lest we be cut off more quickly that the natural (Jewish) branches (see Romans 11:17-22). Terror will fill your hearts; “your life shall hang in doubt before you; and you will be in dread night and day, and shall have no assurance of your life” (Deuteronomy 28:66). This is where Israel is and this is where we will live if we do not harken to the words and will of Yahveh in these last hours. We need to learn what pleases Him.
